1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to leads for electrical components. More specifically, the present invention relates to leads for inductors that are mounted on other electrical components.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional circuits, particularly power supply circuits that are provided on a printed circuit board, inductors are soldered directly to the printed circuit board. Accordingly, copper conductors connect the inductors to other circuit elements, such as a circuit controller, via copper traces on the outer surfaces and/or internal layers of the printed circuit board.
Current paths in circuits, including those current paths created by an inductor, act as antennas, which generate electric power from incident electromagnetic waves and, vice-versa, which generate electromagnetic waves from electric power flowing through the current paths. Long current paths created by soldering an inductor lead or other critical-component lead (e.g., a high-current or noisy lead of a field-effect transistor (FET) or a capacitor) to a printed circuit board allows external noise (e.g., electromagnetic interference (EMI)) to reduce the performance of conventional circuits. More specifically, long current paths permit a greater influence on conventional circuits from external electromagnetic waves generating power (and thus noise) when incident upon the current paths. Similarly, long current paths allow for the generation of electromagnetic waves from electric power flowing through the current paths, which causes a loss of power from the current paths and thereby reduces the performance of conventional circuits.
Furthermore, soldering an inductor lead or other critical-component lead to a printed circuit board creates a high-current path with excessive current drop across the current path on the printed circuit board. Accordingly, due to the current drop across the current path on the printed circuit board, conventional circuits exhibit poor efficiency and generate excessive heat. Furthermore, inductor leads and other critical-component leads inherently include parasitic elements (e.g., parasitic capacitance), and longer leads increase the undesirable effects of parasitic elements.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 01-232707 discloses a conventional inductance line 120, a portion of which is shown in FIG. 14 of the present application. As shown in FIG. 14 of the present application, legs 121 and 122 of the inductance line 120 are arranged to be inserted into corresponding holes of a printed circuit board. Accordingly, when the legs 121 and 122 of the inductance line 120 are inserted into corresponding holes of a printed circuit board (not shown), a long current path is formed that reduces the performance of a circuit that includes the conventional inductance line 120. In particular, a circuit that includes the conventional inductance line 120 may exhibit poor EMI performance and may have low efficiency and generate excessive heat due to a long current path.